One shot: one kill. But sometimes it’s nice to just blow stuff up in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2.

At the forthcoming E3 (June 5-7), we’ll have a lot to show, and most of our content really benefits from the new ligthing and clouds technology. Today, though, we offer an early look at our work by way of a quick chat with Arma 3’s Lead Artist, Pavel ‘Gugla’ Guglava, who talks about some of the fantastic advancements to lighting, taking a look at how these new changes improve the overall aesthetic of A3, the underlying gameplay, and more!

Worldwide TV Debut! As seen at half-time of the Champions League Final.
 
Inspired by actual events across the globe and written by real Tier 1 Operators while deployed overseas, follow the global Warfighters as they are asked to take on a real terror threat, PETN.

In the few hours spare time left I decided to update the website once more. I’m updating the website frequently as I feel it’s never done.

Both the frontpage and single posts have been updated. Deprecated code has been removed and allot of css changes have been made. The site should load faster now only the first 8 news posts will have a featured image or video. A total of 24 posts are now displayed on the frontpage so 9 to 24 will contain headlines only in the color of the post-type

Green = Note, normal news post including an image
Red = Video, a news post including an embedded video.
Orange = Photo, a screenshot news post including an image and a screenshot slider within the full post

Advertisements have also been changed and updated and I will continue to do so.

Next thing on the list will be updating the CFG makers and releasing some new drivers (12.4′s are as good as done ). The DNA-AMD GAME PANEL is also on the “ToDo” list.

If anybody out there is into games and likes to post about them please let me know. I’m still looking for somebody that is willing to do some news posting here on Do Not Argue without to much attachments or requirements on the amount of posts. A document will be send by me detailing a step by step how to post here on the website, if you’re interested.

As usual any feedback and or suggestions are more than welcome.

Thechineseroom announced Dear Esther sold 100,000 units. The recent release of a Mac version and the Steam discount have contributed to this major milestone. I can really recommend this game to anybody that is willing to step aside from the traditional games we play now a days as this is a whole new experience.

Late last night Dear Esther hit a phenomenal 100,000 sales! This is a huge landmark for us and I’m still completely taken aback by how well it’s done. I have to admit I was a little unsure as to what to expect from sales of Dear Esther once we went to retail, we all were – there was no real benchmark to go by at the time, so I’m extremely pleased to see so many people enjoying the game, and most importantly, proving that gamers are open and eager to new ideas and experiences outside of the boundaries of ’traditional’ gameplay.
 
Thanks to everyone who has supported us through this journey, and who will hopefully continue to support us in the future!
 
-Rob

An unexpected detour leads Joel and Ellie into an ambush in this cinematic from Naughty Dog’s upcoming PlayStation 3 survival-action video game The Last of Us.

Gun down your enemies by foot, air, or vehicle in Ravaged.

Does Max Payne 3 deliver the right kind of Payne or is it just a scratch?

Issue Description:

We’ve recently identified an issue where some of our legacy graphics products are producing certain artifacts in Diablo III with our latest release of Catalyst™ 12.4. This issue only affects users of ATI Radeon™ HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3400, 3600 and 4500 graphics cardsunder Windows® Vista® and Windows 7.

Note: Users of these products under Windows XP are unaffected.

Resolution:

This issue has now been resolved in the AMD Catalyst 12.4a hotfix driver. Users of the ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3400, 3600 and 4500 graphics cards are the only AMD customers who need to download this hotfix driver.

Download and install the driver from the following location:

• AMD Catalyst 12.4a Hotfix Driver for Windows 7 and Windows Vista 

For detailed instructions on how to install the driver, please refer to:

• Article GPU-33 for a Windows 7 based system
• Article GPU-1 for a Windows Vista based system

Note! This Driver is provided “AS IS” and under the terms and conditions of the End User License Agreement provided therewith.

Applicable Products:
This article applies to the following configuration(s):

Hardware

ATI Radeon HD 4500 SeriesATI Radeon HD 3600 SeriesATI Radeon HD 3400 SeriesATI Radeon HD 2900
• ATI Radeon HD 2600
• ATI Radeon HD 2400

Software

• Diablo III

Operating Systems

• Windows 7 64-bit Edition
• Windows 7 32-bit Edition
• Windows Vista 64-bit Edition
• Windows Vista 32-bit Edition

Like Conquest? Like Domination? Then you’ll love Conquest Domination On this new map!

New features

Windows XP support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

• In addition to Windows 7 and Windows Vista support, Catalyst 12.4 now also introduces Windows XP (64-bit/32-bit) support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing: Level of Detail (LOD) Image Quality enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• LOD Image quality enhancements have been improved when enabling Super Sample Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst™ Control Center for DirectX® 10 and DirectX® 11 applications.
• Applications must support in game Anti-Aliasing for the feature to work (Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center is not supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications)

Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA): Significant performance enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series, AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• MLAA now operates up to 80% faster than previous versions

Texture filtering quality improvements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• Improvements have been made to the texture filtering algorithm (for both DirectX9 and DirectX10/DirectX11 applications) to increase the quality of rendered textures, with no impact to performance

Resolved issues

for the Windows 7 Operating System

• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: no longer hangs on single GPU configurations when used with AMD Catalyst 12.3 CAP1 and later CAP releases
• Elder Scolls: Skyrim: flickering square corruption is no longer observed.
• Rage: Vsync is no longer disabled after task switching.
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: no longer crashes when launched in High Performance Mode.
• Stalker – Call of Pripyat: flickering is no longer observed in trees with specific Catalyst Control Center settings.
• Tom Clancy HAWX 2: no longer crashes on game launch.
• Windows Media Center: no longer crashes when run in Eyefinity mode and High Performance mode settings.
• AMD Steady Video: an error message is no longer displayed when enabling AMD Steady Video for the Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 plugin.
• Duplicating displays no longer generates random corruption.
• Tearing is no longer observed on the third screen in 3×1 and 1×3 Eyefinity configurations.
• A system crash is no longer experienced when enabling Crossfire in a 4 display configuration.
• The advanced video quality settings are now correctly displayed in the Catalyst Control Center.

for the Windows Vista Operating System

• The Catalyst Control Center now renders correctly when launched while playing a Bluray disc using WinDVD.

for the Windows XP Operating System

• Dirt 3: a system hang is no longer experienced when running game at maximum in game settings.
• Dragon Age 2: visual corruption is no longer observed.

Known issues

under the Windows 7 operating system

• Blocky video corruption may be observed while using Windows Media Player to playback HD WMV content.
• The Catalyst Control Center may experience random crashes in specific configurations.
• A green screen may be triggered when playing back Flash content using Google Chrome and Firefox.
• The Unigine Tropics demo may experience random crashes when run with shaders=low and Vsync enabled.

under the Windows Vista operating system

• Cyberlink PowerDVD may crash when enabling BOB de-interlace mode.

under the Windows XP operating system

• The system may fail to resume from sleep/hibernate mode is some configurations.

DOWNLOADS:
AMD Catalyst 12.4 – Windows XP (32bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.4 – Windows XP (64bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.4 – Windows Vista/7 (32bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.4 – Windows Vista/7 (64bit)
AMD Catalyst Mobility 12.4 – Windows Vista/7 (32bit)
AMD Catalyst Mobility 12.4 – Windows Vista/7 (64bit)
AMD CrossFireX Application Profiles

So it has been a while since my last post here on DNA. At this stage I’m thinking about the future of the website, drivers and (future)projects that I’m working on. I had hoped to have some help this year for posting news and updates on the website but I’m sorry to say that people that promised/wanted to help haven’t done so up till now so it’s still a one man project here on DNA and I don’t think this will change anytime soon.

The links have been fixed and the website should operate normal again. I was working on a new theme/template that managed to alter the permalink structure somehow.

The coming days I will try to figure out what course to set/go with the website now that I’m still having to maintain/manage everything myself.

My daughter is also consuming more and more time now that she’s just over six months old. I’m real proud of her and the progress she has already made being such a little girl and already wanting to walk while she’s not even crawling around yet. She smiles the whole day and manages to make me happy each and every day I’m spending with her.

Ill post another update soon. New drivers based on the AMD 12.3 WHQL will be released soon and the DNA-AMD-GAME PANEL will also be updated.

Stay tuned.

Better than dinner time. Better than summer time. It’s BULLET TIME in Max Payne 3.

New features

• Catalyst 12.3 now fully supports the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 and AMD Radeon HD 7700 series of products

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

• AMD Catalyst Control Center startup issues/ delays have been resolved
• Tom Clancy HAWX: No longer crashes after task switching with MLAA (Morphological Anti-Aliasing) and Anti-Aliasing enabled
• Furmark Benchmark: No longer crashes when launched in High Performance mode.
• Quake 4: No longer display corruption after task switching when run in High Performance mode
• XPlane: Textures no longer exhibit flicker and corruption
• Skyrim: No longer displays flickering and texture corruption.
• Alan Wake: A system crash is no longer experienced when running the game in DirectX 9 mode with Crossfire enabled
• Far Cry 2: A random system hang is no longer experienced when running the game at high in game setting

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

• AMD Catalyst Control Center startup issues/ delays have been resolved
• Enemy Territory Quake Wars : no longer exhibits random corruption

Known issues under the Windows 7 operating system

• Vsync may be disabled after task switching when playing Rage
• Enemy Territory Quake Wars may crash when launched in High Performance mode
• Crysis 2 may hang randomly when run in DirectX 11 mode.

Known issues under the Windows Vista operating system

• The Catalyst Control Center may not display if launched while using WinDVD to play a BluRay disc.

Known issues under the Windows XP operating system

• The system may hang when playing Dirt 3 at maximum in-game settings
• The system may hang when launching Crysis – Warhead at maximum in game settings
• Dragon Age 2 may display random graphics corruption.

DOWNLOADS:

AMD Catalyst 12.3 – Windows XP (32bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.3 – Windows XP (64bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.3 – Windows Vista/7 (32bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.3 – Windows Vista/7 (64bit)
AMD Catalyst Mobility 12.3 – Windows Vista/7 (32bit)
AMD Catalyst Mobility 12.3 – Windows Vista/7 (64bit)
AMD CrossFireX Application Profiles

Today the big Battlefield 3 update will be released for the PC. Below you will find the huge list of “fixes” and miss-spelled words and sentences! Makes you wonder if they even manage to “fix” anything when they can’t even release proper release notes?
 
Not to mention the time that has been wasted on the game by millions of players (including myself) to get everything unlocked, new players will now be able to beat the persistence system and buy their “skills / unlocks”
 
Reading through the release notes you can’t stop but wonder what made DICE decide to turn Battlefield 3 into BattleDuty 3. I must admit they have tried to encourage team-play with some of the changes. Another point is the size of the update “~1.6GB” is huge for a update for me personally it’s a matter of seconds on 100/100 optic fiber but not everybody is so fortunate to have a high speed internet connection. They might have been better off releasing several ~200MB/~500MB patches imho

This update sees a number of improvements to the commo rose on PC, partially based on feedback from the community. Some of the tweaks we have made are detailed below:

New global call-outs
We have added a number of new commo rose call-outs that you can make to the entire team whenever you want. Where you previously had to look at a Support player to get the option to request ammo, you can now use the commo rose at any time to request ammo, health, or repairs. Using these requests will trigger appropriate icons on the minimap.

Moved orders to commo rose
We moved orders so that they are now exclusive to the commo rose. This means that you will no longer accidentally place an order when you in reality wanted to spot an enemy standing near a flag, for example.

Improved mouse handling
The mouse movement is now always tracked from the center of the commo rose, to make navigation more intuitive.

Quicker activation
You now activate a call-out simply by releasing Q, which should be snappier than the previous implementation. 

Improved readability
We tweaked the layout and design of the commo rose to improve readability and give clearer and quicker confirmation of which call-out is currently highlighted.

The available call-outs in the commo rose is context sensitive and will change depending on what you are currently doing in the game – for example, vehicles and infantry each have separate call-outs. Each function should trigger appropriate voice messages as well as icons on the minimap for increased team play possibilities. Players should keep an eye on the minimap for these icons. If you see them flashing, a team mate is requesting aid via the commo rose.

Improved minimap
After listening to community feedback, we have implemented alternative new ways to display the minimap. You can now choose between Map, Satellite or Hybrid view mode.

Map mode shows the most important tactical geometries such as buildings, objects, roads and water.

Satellite mode displays a top-down photograph of the level for increased terrain detail.

Hybrid mode combines the Satellite view with a Map overlay, offering a mix of quick tactical awareness and terrain detail.

You can change the minimap mode on the fly by pressing [B] (this key is mappable). You can set your preferred default map mode in the Options menu, where you can also alter the opacity level for the satellite textures. See below for an example of how these map displays compare.

Beep beep! We have horns!
Yes! We have added horns to all jeeps in the game! Nothing says “Get in and man the machine gun so we can take back the airfield!” like three short beeps of the horn. Just press [SPACE] to make your presence known to friendly forces. Warning: Beeping also heard by opposition. Suggest limiting beeping when in enemy territory to keep vehicle in working order. This feature is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday (activated by L1).

Giving all players IR flares
To balance the battlefield and give budding pilots a fighting chance from day 1, we are now giving IR flares to all players. These will be automatically available to you in all air vehicles in the game. So if you’ve had a hard time staying up in the air previously, it should be easier to dodge incoming threats from now on. We hope this small but significant change will mean more players take to the skies and mix up their play style. This feature is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

More awards for skillful heli flying
One of the balancing items we have done in this game update is to better reward skillful heli pilots. To do this, we have increased the pilot’s score for transporting passengers who make kills from the heli. The assist score for heli pilots is now 50 points/kill. In a fully loaded transport, four passengers who make 1 kill each will give the pilot a sum total of 200 points. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

Making the SOFLAM a passive income gadget
The Recon gadget SOFLAM (laser target painter) has been given a new feature. Now, when a Recon player places it and then leaves it, it will continue to paint targets entering its area of control, continuously giving the Recon player a passive points income. This means a Recon player can place a SOFLAM in a strategic position, then leave it to find a good sniping spot. Combined with fixing a few scoring error in the SOFLAM, it should now be a much more viable source of experience points for Recons. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

Suppressing is team play, too!
Another balancing change that reflects how we want every player to be able to contribute to the overall effort is the lowered threshold for achieving the Suppression Ribbon. From a previous requirement of 7, players now only need to perform 3 suppressions in a game to be rewarded the Suppression Ribbon. This means the Support Kit player can rack up scores by skillful use of his LMG. We’ve always know suppression helps  – now we are more generously rewarding those team players who help disorient the enemy so we can move in for the kill. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

New to the game? Get a flying start with our new shortcut items

Today, we are also offering 10 different shortcut items for sale for Battlefield 3 on PC. If you’re new to the game, this is the perfect way to gain some ground on the veterans online. Or if you’d love to get your hands on those AA missiles for jets instantly, this is for you.

The 10 shortcut items are available now from Origin and include:

Kit Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items unique to the four playable classes
Vehicle Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items for all vehicles
The Ultimate Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items from all other available shortcut packs

We hope you enjoy the contents of this game update. As always , had to the Battlelog forums or discuss the update with us right here on the blog. See you on the battlefield!

FIXES FOR PC SERVER OPERATION

• Having the same map occur multiple times in the maplist now works properly
• If adding a new map to the servers maplist after a clear and then running “mapList.runNextRound” the server will ignore any remaining rounds on the map that it still run since before the clear and move to the new first map in the list. The server will now have reset the current rounds per map and run the map in the list for the number of rounds stated when adding the map.
• Maplist can contain up to 1000 entries now
• mapList.list will return at most 100 entries. To get the entire list, perform mapList.list repeatedly with increasing offsets (like banList.list)

GENERAL GAMEPLAY FIXES

• Players should no longer take fall damage from short falls.
• Players now get up from Prone slightly faster, allowing better odds of getting away from a grenade or threat when prone.
• Fixed some situations that would unintentionally make a player unrevivable.
• Reduced the black screen fade in time on spawn. The fade is still necessary for properly streaming in loading content at spawn, but it has been substantially reduced.
• Increased the spawn protection time from 1sec to 2sec. The protection will still be immediately canceled as soon as the player moves or shoots.
• Spawn protection will no longer be canceled by the player looking around.
• Increased the speed at which a player regains accuracy when aiming after moving for a more responsive experience. Firing before fully zoomed will still result inaccurate fire.
• Increased the inaccuracy and recoil added when a player is fully suppressed.
• Shotgun Buck and Flechette rounds now have a less suppressive effect at medium to long range.
• Tweaked the damage levels of Buck and Flechette rounds to balance them with other weapons.
• Improved the suppression of the .44 magnum, .357 magnum, and the 5.8x42mm DAP88 rounds from the Type88 sniper.
• Attempting to Crouch (like Prone) will now properly interrupt Sprint.
• Increased the effectiveness of Suppression Resist Specialization.
• Parachutes now respond to turn and throttle inputs more quickly.
• Switching from primary weapons to sidearms and back now takes less time.
• Increased the effectiveness of explosive resistance.
• Tweaked bipod deploy settings so players can no longer deploy a bipod in places higher than chin level.
• The bipod should now be more reliable when deploying on top of sloped objects like cars and rocks.
• Fixed several issues with vaulting objects, especially for thin railings.
• The Knife now only takes two swipes to kill when attacking from a position where a takedown is not possible.
• CRAM weapons on Carriers now count towards stationary weapon awards.

VEHICLE FIXES

• The A10 properly gives Jet score again.
• Unguided tank rounds and RPGs will now instantly destroy Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
• Increased the damage the MBT’s primary weapon does to the front and side armor of other main battle tanks. Primarily this means 1 less shot to the front, and very good hits to the side can result in a 1 hit to disable.
• Slightly reduced the repair speed of the repair tool.
• Increased the damage done by TOW weapons to armored vehicles.
• Increased the rate of fire and minimum damage of the Coax HMG.
• Increased the damage mounted gunner .50cal HMGs do at long range.
• Increased the power of the repair tool when killing soldiers or destroying vehicles slightly.
• Fixed a problem when locking on to two nearby targets, the locking should no longer jump rapidly between multiple targets. This applies to all locking weapons and Laser Designators.
• Increased the damage of the Javelin and Air to Ground missiles against laser designated targets.
• Javelin missiles fired without Laser targeting now do more damage to the side and rear of MBTs.
• Slightly reduced the locking time of all weapons vs Laser Designated targets.
• Laser Guided missiles can now be distracted by Flares.
• Increased the locking distance for AGM Missiles for Jets when locking on laser designated targets.
• Reduced the locking time for the AGM Missiles for Jets to make them more viable against ground targets.
• Reduced the locking time for AA Missiles for Jets to make them more viable against air targets.
• Flares will no longer break the lock of a vehicle that is locked on, it will only distract the missiles.
• Flares now more reliably distract missiles, especially for Helicopters.
• Flares for Jets and Choppers now reload at 11 seconds again, except for the gunner, which remains unchanged at 20sec.
• AA Missiles are more difficult to dodge in Jets, this was unintended behavior that created an imbalance against skilled pilots.
• AA Missiles should no longer kill the pilot instead of the vehicle.
• AA Missiles should no longer detonate before hitting their target or a Flare/ECM chaff cloud.
• Reduced the damage AA missiles do to jets to 45%.
• Fixed the SU-35 firing Air to Air missiles at a lower rate of fire than other vehicles.
• The IGLA and Stinger now lock on much more quickly and disable an attack aircraft in 1 hit, but have significantly reduced range. This should allow Stingers to mount an effective close range point defense, without dominating an entire airspace.
• Increased the speed of the Helicopter AA missiles lock on to reduce the tedious nature of Helicopter dogfights and improve the Helicopter’s defensive abilities vs Jets.
• Slightly reduced the damage of Jet cannons against Aircraft. Damage is now only slightly higher than it was originally at launch.
• Increased RPG and SMAW damage against aircraft.
• Guided Rockets will now only track ground targets, as originally intended.
• Reduced the direct damage done by Attack Helicopter gunners vs Armor.
• Helicopter guns should now suppress correctly.
• Improved the accuracy of the Attack Helicopter’s Rocket Pods, both guided and unguided.
• Slightly increased the damage of Attack Helicopter’s Rocket Pods vs Infantry and other Helicopters.
• Additional fixes have been made to the TV missile to prevent it from blowing up the lauching vehicle.
• The Mi28 has received upgrades to its climbing and yawing abilities.
• Fixed an issue where guided rockets from the Mi28 did not follow the crosshair properly.
• Improved the accuracy of the Mi28 gun to match the AH1 gun.
• Increased the direct hit damage of the APFSDS rounds for the IFVs.
• Decreased the locking time of the IFV Guided Missile to make it more viable as an unlock.
• Miniguns and Helicopter Gunners now more quickly destroy parked cars.
• Increased the power of explosions from cars and other explosive static objects.
• Dying from the explosion of a car or other explosive static object should now correctly credit the player who caused the explosion.
• Adjusted the F35′s Center of Mass and Hover Engine for more stable, level flight in all flight modes.
• Updated the F35 weapon systems to be consistent with the other Jets.
• The F35 will now only attempt to enter Hover at low altitudes, though it will maintain the hover until forward flight is resumed, even if it reaches high altitude.
• The F35 and SU35 now properly have Ejection seats to prevent players from being killed when exiting the vehicle.
• Changed the Kornets to TOW launchers on Wake Island and moved the spawn position of the AAV to a more level position.
• Fixed several bugs with air vehicles colliding with objects at high speeds and taking no damage.
• Players will no longer receive suicides or team kills if they crash their vehicle (dying is punishment enough).
• The MAV will no longer destroy vehicles that run into it, instead it should be destroyed.
• Jet and Helicopter collisions should now properly result in the death of both vehicles.
• You can now spot with the EOD bot.
• Increased the base accuracy for AA guns and added a decrease in accuracy over the course of a burst.
• Reduced the damage AA guns (both mobile and stationary) do to infantry.
• The carrier based CRAM stations are now properly tracked as stationary weapons.
• CRAM and Pantsir stationary AA weapons now have Air Radar equipped by default.
• Improved the sound feedback for damage to help players better understand the amount of damage their vehicle is taking.
• The A10′s extinguisher should now function properly.
• Disabled vehicles now have an increased reverse speed to help escape to cover after being disabled.
• The T90′s crosshair now more accurately represents the trajectory of the main gun.
• Toggle and Hold zoom settings now also apply to soldier controlled turrets on jeeps, transport helicopters, boats, and IFVs port guns.
• The AAV now has zoom and a 3P camera when using the turret.
• Tweaked the AAV’s turret controls to be more useful when the vehicle is moving.
• The Z11w now properly functions with Below Radar.
• Below Radar will now also prevent the lock on of Stinger and IGLA missiles.
• Added Horns to all Jeeps.
• Tanks can no longer drive into the water and cross the Wake Island lagoon completely submerged.

WEAPONS
Several weapons have had recoil or accuracy adjusted in orer to balance these weapons in effectiveness and also increase the feeling of individuality in each gun

• Added Extended Mags to the ASVAL. The Extended Mags can be unlocked at 200 kills with the AS VAL.
• Reduced the recoil of the SKS rifle and increased its maximum damage at close range.
• Fixed aimed firing max accuracy on the Pecheneg to be consistent with other LMGs.
• Semiautomatic and automatic shotguns firing FRAG rounds now do slightly less splash damage.
• The M26 MASS frag and slug rounds are now the more effective pump action versions.
• The M26 MASS and M320 now benefit from the Laser Sight when mounted with an Underslung Rail.
• Fixed the bolt action timer on the L96 that would cause an animation glitch.
• 9x39mm rounds no longer benefit from the Sniper headshot bonus.
• Increased the damage of the 9x39mm rounds at long range.
• Fixed the AKS74u damage at max range, it was incorrectly higher than other carbines.
• Increased the damage of the .357 and .44 magnum rounds at max range.
• All semiautomatic and bolt weapons, including all shotgun slugs, now have their maximum damage out to 15m.
• Semiautomatic weapons will no longer “jam” if the player presses fire faster than the weapon is capable of shooting. Some semi-automatic weapons have had their rates of fire adjusted to fit this change.
• Bolt action sniper rounds now have a chance to kill at close range if the player is hit in the upper chest.
• Semiautomatic sniper rifles, Assault Rifles, LMGs, and shotgun slugs now have more consistent damage over long range. At maximum range shots to the legs will not require more hits to kill.
• The spread for Flechette rounds has been reduced slightly on all shotguns.
• The spread for Buckshot has been reduced on the M1014, DAO-12, and S12k. These weapons have an accuracy advantage over the USAS12 but are not as accurate as the 870.
• Zooming shotguns with Buckshot and Flechette loads will now result in a slightly tighter cone for the pellets.
• Reduced the delay time between quick knife attempts slightly. Attacks with the knife drawn are still significantly faster.
• Fixed the Rate of Fire when the USAS and MK3A1 are equipped with FRAG rounds. All other shotguns correctly had a reduced rate of fire with frags, except the USAS and MK3A1.
• Fixed an Accuracy bug when the MK3A1 shotgun is equipped with FRAG or Slug rounds.
• Shotguns equipped with slugs will no longer automatically begin reloading if the weapon is zoomed when the clip is empty. This allows players to see where the slug lands before reloading.
• Fixed 12g FRAG rounds not breaking glass at long range.
• Players can now earn the shotgun Ribbon using the M26 MASS.
• The underslung grenade launchers for Russian rifles now properly report GP30 in the kill log.
• Fixed the AEK971 40mm shotgun round listing itself as FRAG in the kill log.
• Fixed the 40mm smoke grenade so it no longer passes through soldiers and unbroken objects before it detonates.
• M27 IAR: No change. The M27 is a heavier version of the M416, giving it good all-around performance though it has worse performance on the move.
• RPK-74M: Reduced the initial recoil and vertical recoil. The RPK-74M is a more stable firing platform than the comparable M27, though it lacks the M27′s higher rate of fire.
• M249: Added an initial recoil. The M249 is the fastest firing belt fed LMG, giving it superior suppressive and damage abilities. The initial recoil makes it a bit harder to run and gun, while making little overall impact on performance.
• Type-88: Slightly increased the initial recoil, reduced muzzle drift. The Type88 fires the slowest of the medium caliber LMGs, though what it lacks in rate of fire it makes up for in controllability.
• PKP: Reduced recoil but added a slight initial recoil, increased damage at max range. The Pecheneg has a heavy vertical recoil with a hard hitting round and little drift, this makes it excellent at sustained fire.
• M60: Reduced the initial recoil, increased damage at all ranges. The M60 has a very low rate of fire that makes it the most controllable with the powerful 7.62x51mm round.
• M240B: Added an initial recoil, increased damage at all ranges. The fastest firing medium MG, the M240 has a substantial muzzle kick and drift that makes all that power difficult to control.
• QBB-95: Reduced the total recoil but increased muzzle drift and initial recoil. The QBB-95 should now kick harder but settle into full auto fire better, combined with the bullpup hip fire bonus this makes the QBB-95 a highly mobile LMG.
• MG36: Added an initial recoil. The MG36 fires at a fast 750rpm and makes a nice middle ground between the controllability of a clip LMG and the sustained firepower of a belt fed LMG.
• 870: No change. The 870 is a popular and highly effective weapon.
• DAO-12: Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The DAO-12 has a high magazine capacity with a slow reload that makes it a solid all around shotgun.
• M1014: Increased the rate of fire from 200 max to 210 max. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The M1014 was underperforming compared to the USAS12 and 870, it should now be more viable in CQB thanks to a higher rate of fire.
• S12k: Increased extended mag from 8 rounds to 10 rounds. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The S12k larger extended magazine but slower rate of fire should make it stand out against the M1014, while the DAO-12 has a higher capacity over all, but a slowe reload.
• MK3A1: Increased magazine capacity to 8 and 12 for normal and extended mag respectively. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The MK3A1 has a lower ROF than the USAS12, giving it slightly more ammo makes this an edge vs the USAS.
• USAS-12: Increased the initial recoil. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The USAS 12 has a higher ROF than other shotguns, this recoil change better balances that advantage and the pellets balance its damage output.
• M4A1: No Change. Well-rounded carbine, with good rate of fire and controllable recoil.
• M4: Increased vertical recoil, reduced horizontal recoil. The Burst only M4 should now feel different to its automatic sibling, the reduced horizontal recoil emphasizes the greater control you have in burst fire.
• AKS-74U: Reduced initial recoil and vertical recoil. The AKS-74u’s low rate of fire is paired with great controllability. The overall increase in sustained fire control should help this carbine stand out, while the first kick gives it character.
• SG553: Reduced initial recoil and vertical recoil. The SG553 is a lower rate of fire carbine with greater controllability than the G36C. The change to initial recoil should better highlight this difference.
• A91: No Change. The A91′s high rate of fire and bullpup from the hip accuracy is offset by a poor controllability on full auto.
• G36C: Reduced initial recoil. The G36C is a well-rounded carbine, with a medium rate of fire and a medium recoil. The 2 round burst mode gives this weapon an edge at mid-range.
• SCAR-H: Increased damage at maximum range and increased max range. The SCAR-H fires a heavier round than all other carbines, giving it better stopping power at range at the cost of a low fire rate that penalizes it in CQB.
• G53: Reduced recoil and drift, recoil settle times now similar to other carbines. The HK53 is a short carbine with a lot of initial kick but a stable recoil pattern and a medium rate of fire. The changes give it more character compared to the G36.
• QBZ-95B: Reduced muzzle sway, recoil settle times now similar to other carbines. A bullpup like the A91, the QBZ-95B is steady on the move with a lower rate of fire for controllable shots at longer range. The built in foregrip is now properly reflected in the weapon’s stats.
• AK-74M: Reduced initial recoil and vertical recoil. The AK-74M sacrifices rate of fire for controllable automatic fire, the initial recoil was negatively affecting the feeling of controllability.
• M16A3: No Change. The M16 (both A3 and A4) provide a well-rounded stable firing platform with a high rate of fire that is relatively controllable.
• M16A4: Increased vertical recoil, reduced horizontal recoil. The Burst only M16A4 should now feel different to its automatic sibling, the reduced horizontal recoil emphasizes the greater control you have in burst fire.
• M416: No change. The M416 is the middle ground AR, blending a medium recoil and rate of fire.
• AEK-971: Increased initial recoil, reduced aimed accuracy slightly. The AEK has a very high rate of fire, and also a large muzzle drift that makes control difficult. The low initial recoil allowed a player to kill before the weapon’s weaknesses kicked in while the reduced accuracy highlights its close range role.
• F2000: Reduced vertical recoil, increased zoomed accuracy slightly. As a bullpup, the F2000 has a bonus to accuracy on the move and from the hip while its high rate of fire sacrifices controllability for saturation. The previous changes were an overreaction, this is a corrective update.
• AN94: Reduced vertical recoil. The AN94′s 2 round burst mode is incredibly accurate, but it suffers from a low rate of fire on fully automatic. The recoil in full auto has been reduced somewhat to offset this penalty and make the AN94 more attractive.
• G3A3: Increased damage at all ranges, reduced vertical recoil. The G3A3′s heavy recoil and heavy round are offset by a low rate of fire and a small magazine. The G3A3 was clearly outclassed at all ranges.
• KH2002: No Change. The KH2002 is locked to burst fire, with a high rate of fire and a large muzzle drift the weapon favors accurate mid-range fire.
• L85A2: Increased accuracy, reduced muzzle drift. The L85 differs from other bullpup style ARs by having a low rate of fire, the accuracy and controllability were too low to offset the rate of fire.
• FAMAS: The FAMAS combines an extreme rate of fire with extreme recoil making it very difficult to use at anything other than close quarters combat. Due to update restrictions, the FAMAS had different stats on all 3 platforms. The FAMAS is now uniform on all platforms and now has the correct 25 round magazine.
• PP2000: Reduced the initial recoil. The PP2000 has a lower ROF than other PDWs and needed the controllability to be balanced.
• UMP45: Reduced accuracy loss during full auto. The UMP45 hits hard and has a controllable recoil at the cost of a heavy initial recoil kick.
• MP7: No Change. The MP7 has a very low recoil and a high muzzle drift that favors longer bursts than the P90.
• AS VAL: Increased vertical recoil, reduced first shot recoil, reduced accuracy on the move. The AS VAL fires a long range, highly accurate, high damage projectile that favors short bursts or single fire when stationary. While still quite good from the hip, the AS VAL will suffer if fired while moving and aimed.
• PDW-R: Reduced the initial recoil. The PDW-R has high recoil and favors burst fire, the added initial recoil was making it less effective in small bursts.
• P90: Reduced the initial recoil. The P90 favors a run and gun play style using long bursts to control muzzle drift, the initial recoil was making bursting ineffective.
• PP-19: Slightly reduced the initial recoil when firing, increased base damage. The PP-19′s high initial recoil was over penalizing the burst fire needed to be effective on the low damage, high capacity weapon.

SCOPES

• Fixed the 7x scope not zooming to the full 7x on all weapons.
• Corrected the M39′s laser sight so it points at the point of impact and aligns with scopes when zoomed.
• Fixed a misaligned scope crosshair on the G3A3 using the Rifle Scope 6x.
• Fixed the PKA and PKA-S scopes on the M416 having swapped zoom levels.
• The L96 Straight Pull bolt now functions properly.
• The L96 ironsights have been adjusted for a clearer aiming picture and correct use of the integral front sight.
• The L96 now properly shows scope glint when using the 8x, and 12x scopes.
• Tweaked IRNV to be more consistent across all levels.
• Fixed a rendering issue with IRNV view when taking damage.
• Tweaked the IRNV zoom times and scope visible areas to be the same across all weapons (some were faster than others).
• Fixed the QBU-88 sniper and the L96 IRNV scopes to use the proper sniper reticule

BIPOD

• The Accuracy increase and Recoil reduction of the Bipod has been significantly improved for Assault Rifles and Carbines.
• The Bipod now provides similar Accuracy and Recoil benefits no matter if the weapon is fired while aiming or without aiming for all weapons. Previously only LMGs were worked this way. This especially improves the speed at which snipers can make follow up shots, and also allows effective unaimed suppressive fire with Assault Rifles and Carbines.
• Increased the Speed at which a bipod is deployed, allowing the user to obtain the bipod’s bonus sooner after the deploy has started and allowing the weapon to be aimed in a far shorter time. The speed has been increased 40-50%, depending on the weapon and animation.

HEAVY BARREL

• The Vertical Recoil penalty of the Heavy Barrel has been reduced. The value has been changed from a global percent increase to a weapon specific value.
• A small Hip Accuracy penalty has been added to the Heavy Barrel to represent the added weight of the accessory, as well as focus the attachment on accurate mid and long range fire. The exact penalty amount is a weapon specific value.
• Several weapons with low default bullet speed now have their bullet speed increased when the Heavy Barrel is equipped. This is in effect for the A91, G3A3, AKS-74u, G36C, M4A1, SCAR-H, SG553, G53, and QBZ-95B.
• The Heavy Barrel is now also paired with Match Rounds which increase the maximum range of the weapon. The minimum and maximum damage are unchanged, weapons with the Heavy Barrel will be more effective in mid range.
• The Aimed Accuracy bonus provided by the Heavy Barrel has been increased. This will increase the effectiveness of the Heavy Barrel for small bursts, as originally intended.

IRNV FIXES

• Tweaked IRNV to be more consistent across all levels.
• Fixed a rendering issue with IRNV view when taking damage.
• Tweaked the IRNV zoom times and scope visible areas to be the same across all weapons (some were faster than others).
• Fixed the QBU-88 sniper and the L96 IRNV scopes to use the proper sniper reticule.

FOREGRIP

• The Horizontal Sway reduction has been changed from a global percent reduction to a weapon specific value reduction. For most guns this means very little change, for guns which have a large horizontal recoil the change is more substation. The FAMAS, F2000, and AEK971 are most effected, the AK-74, M16, and M416 are nearly unchanged.
• A small long range Aimed Accuracy penalty has been added to the foregrip. Players who generally find themselves fighting at mid to long range may want to change their accessory, while players fighting in CQB will go largely unaffected. Combining the Foregrip with a Silencer or a Heavy Barrel will offset this penalty.

LASER SIGHT

• The Hip Accuracy bonus provided by the Laser Sight has been increased. Some PDWs have had their crouch and prone base stats adjusted to prevent hip firing being more accurate than aimed fire when using a laser sight.
• The bonus is now a weapon specific value instead of a global percentage, some guns receive larger or smaller bonuses, though all bonuses are better than they were previously.

SUPPRESSOR

• The Suppressor no longer reduces the maximum damage of a weapon when equipped. Instead the Suppressor reduces the minimum and maximum range of the weapon, making it ideal for CQB and Stealth. This change will make the Suppressor slightly more effective at long range, where the bullet drop and speed makes shots difficult already, and reduces the power of the suppressor at mid range slightly.
• The Suppressor’s recoil bonus remains unchanged at a global 10% decrease. This is less than the Flash Suppressor’s bonus for all weapons.
• The Hip Accuracy penalty of the Suppressor has been changed from a global percentage to a per weapon value. Generally this penalty is higher now, but not for all weapons. Specifically, the belt LMGs and bolt Snipers do not have any additional hip fire penalty, as their penalty is already at the maximum possible value.
• Reduced the Aimed Accuracy bonus of the Suppressor from 50% to 25%. A Suppressor and Foregrip combo will have similar accuracy to a weapon without any Accessories, at the penalty of worse Hip Fire Accuracy and Range and with the benefit of much improved Stealth and reduced Recoil.

FLASH SUPPRESSOR

• The Flash Suppressor no longer reduces accuracy for Automatic Fire.
• The Flash Suppressor now also works as a recoil compensator, reducing the Vertical Recoil by a weapon specific value. This bonus is larger than the bonus provided by the Suppressor.
• A small Hip Accuracy penalty has been added to the Flash Suppressor to represent the added weight of the accessory. The exact penalty amount is a weapon specific value.

GADGETS

• Reduced the spot times on C4 and Claymore projectiles from 30 to 15 sec.
• Tweaked the controls and physics for the EOD bot to improve its handling and aiming capabilities.
• The Radio Beacon, Mortar, MAV, EOD bot, T-UGS, and SOFLAM should now be much easier to deploy.
• The MAV will now be destroyed when running into a soldier or vehicle at high speed. It is still possible to strategically sacrifice your MAV on a soldier; it will be destroyed in the process.
• The MAV now properly shows up in the Kill Feed. Previously it simply displayed “KILLED.”
• The MAV can no longer be used as an elevator.
• Matched the motion sensor sweep frequency and range on the MAV to the TUGS.
• Players will no longer auto enter SOFLAM, MAV, and EOD bots after they are deployed.
• Players may now use their knife to destroy enemy equipment.
• C4 will no longer be detonable after a player respawns, if the player is revived within 5 seconds he can still detonate his C4.
• The player may now have a maximum number of mines which will persist after the player’s death. Deploying more than the maximum of 6 mines will remove a previous mine from the world.
• Claymores now live up to 5 seconds after a player dies, the player can have a max 2 claymores planted at the same time.
• Claymores can now detonate from vehicles and can be used to disable jeeps or kill the passengers in light jeeps. Claymores will not do any damage to heavy vehicles.
• Ammobags now stay until the user redeploys them like Medkits.
• Ammobags resupply bullets more quickly, but explosives resupply more slowly, especially 40mm grenades.
• Slightly reduced the effective blast radius of the RPG, SMAW, and 40mm grenade projectiles against infantry.
• Reduced the total number of RPG and SMAW missiles carried from 5 to 4. Players desiring more rockets will want to use the Explosive spec.
• Slightly increased the heal rate of the Medical Crate.
• The MAV now will also descend by pressing the Crouch Toggle key. (PC)
• The M224 Mortar can no longer be deployed in an area that is out of combat for another team like a home base or other protected spawn.
• Tweaked M224 exit points so the player faces in the direction of the mortar when he exits.
• Mines, Claymores, C4 and other deployable items will now only appear on the minimap when spotted by a teammate.

TEAM DEATHMATCH

• Fixed a bug where players would spawn close to the enemy team at the start of the round.
• Tehran Highway playable area has been doubled and is now the same as the Squad Deathmatch set up. Spawn points have been tweaked, and an extra spawn zone has been added north of the footbridge.
• Kharg Island has a new spawn zone layout, along with a bigger playable area and new cover objects. Spawn points have also been tweaked.
• Strike at Karkand spawns zones have been tweaked to improve player flow. Spawn points have been tweaked to improve safety upon spawning.
• Sharqi Peninsula spawn zones have been adjusted to optimize player movement. Spawn points have been tweaked so players spawn more safely.
• Seine Crossing spawn zone set up has been improved. There is a new spawn zone by the alleyway to the northwest with additional spawn points.
• Caspain Border spawn zones have been tweaked slightly.

SQUAD DEATHMATCH

• Fixed a bug where players would spawn close to the enemy team at the start of the round.
• Damavand Peak layout and spawn zones have been tightened to reduce the spread of players across the map
• Tehran Highway now features an extra spawn zone north of the footbridge, along with tweaked spawn points.
• Noshahr Canals spawn zones have been tweaked. Removed unsafe spawn points in the Northeast corner, and in the middle of the container area to the Southwest.

DISABLE ANTI-ALIASING ON PS3 TO REDUCE INPUT LAG

• PlayStation 3 players may now turn off anti-alias in the options menu to reduce input lag.

This is the official launch driver for GeForce GTX 680 – the fastest, most efficient GPU ever built.

Explore GeForce GTX 680 and its new SMX architecture on GeForce.com.

GeForce R300 drivers introduce several new industry-leading gaming features and will be released using versions 300.xx to 301.xx.

New Feature Summary:

• NVIDIA GPU Boost Technology – dynamically maximizes clock speeds based on workload of the game to push performance to new levels and bring out the best in every game. Learn more on GeForce.com.

• NVIDIA FXAA Technology – shader-based anti-aliasing technology available from the NVIDIA Control Panel that enables ultra-fast anti-aliasing in hundreds of PC games. FXAA delivers similar quality to 4x multi-sample antialiasing (MSAA) but is up to 60% faster, enabling substantially higher performance in games. Note: This feature is disabled for games already have built-in support for FXAA. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

• NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync – dynamically enables vertical sync based on your current frame rates for the smoothest gaming experience. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

• NVIDIA Frame Rate Target – dynamically adjusts frame rate to a user specified target. Support for this feature is enabled via third party applications via NVAPI. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

• NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Technology – with a single GeForce GTX 680 you can expand your PC games across three displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate “inside the game” experience. NVIDIA Surround also supports triple screen gaming with non-3D Vision monitors. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

New Surround features:

• Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
• Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
• Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
• Enable bezel peeking – a feature which enables users to temporarily ‘peak’ behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
• Enables users to add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
• Enables full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).

• NVIDIA NVENC Support – adds support for the new hardware-based H.264 video encoder in GeForce GTX 680, providing up to 4x faster encoding performance while consuming less power.

Other Details

• Installs PhysX System Software v9.12.0213.
• Installs HD Audio v1.3.12.0.
• Supports OpenGL 4.2
• Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 680.
• Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
• Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel and AMD motherboards.

DOWNLOAD:
Windows Vista/7 – 32bit
Windows Vista/7 – 64bit

The OpenCL  1.2 beta includes  the following OpenCL™ 1.2 functionality:

• Host access flags for memory objects enable more efficient buffer handling and provide added protection. For example, a buffer that is created as “write only” cannot be read from the host.
• Pattern based GPU buffer and image initialization can help eliminate need for certain buffer/image transfers
• Memory objects migration supports transfer of buffers prior to need
• New generalized image creation API
• Enhanced image/buffer map operations
• OpenCL 1.2 CPU device partition including partition of a CPU after addition to a context
• Generalized 1D and 2D images, image arrays,  and image<-> buffer interop
• Libraries support including the separation of compile and link phases and the ability to compile with external symbols
• Kernel reflection, the ability to query a kernel’s arguments
• Support for printf as a built in function

OpenCL™ 1.2 support is scheduled to  be included in our official AMD Catalyst™ driver releases in the coming months.

You can download the drivers from our APP SDK downloads page.

Fight fallen foes once again after the Siren brings them back to life in BioShock Infinite

The Legacy System is coming in Game Update 1.2, and with it, a new dimension to The Old Republic™ experience. Like the Skywalkers, you’ll build your own family tree in the Star Wars™ galaxy, linking your characters on the same server together. Your achievements will open up new species options, new abilities for all the characters in your Legacy, and that’s only the beginning…

This AMD Catalyst™ driver version 8.95.5 features support for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7800 Series.

Windows 7 support for the AD Radeon™ HD 7800 Series

• Enables support for Windows 7 64-bit

Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing: Level of Detail (LOD) Image Quality enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• LOD Image quality enhancements have been improved when enabling Super Sample Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive
• Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst™ Control Center for DirectX® 10 and DirectX® 11 applications.
• Applications must support in game Anti-Aliasing for the feature to work (Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the
• Catalyst Control Center is not supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications)
• To be supported in AMD Catalyst 12.4

Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA):  Significant performance enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• MLAA now operates up 80% faster than previous versions of MLAA
• To be supported in AMD Catalyst 12.4

Instructions:

Download and install the Driver from the following location:

• AMD Catalyst™ Driver Version 8.95.5

The creator of Counter-Strike strikes back with attack dogs and a Vehicle VIP Mode in his new game, Tactical Intervention.

MechWarrior Online GDC 2012 Gameplay Trailer
 
Piranha Games is proud to bring you the next instalment in the MechWarrior® franchise, MechWarrior® Online! MechWarrior® Online is a premium Free-To-Play game based on the bestselling BattleTech® Universe.

For a limited time only you will be able to give “Star Wars: The Old Republic” a free try. Be sure to check this page on march 15, the Free Weekend Pass “Trial” will end on ‘ MARCH 19, 2012 AT 2:00AM CDT/ 7:00AM GMT / 6:00 PM EDT” . This is your chance to get a glimpse of what SWTOR has to offer.

* TRIAL VALID ONLY FROM MARCH 15, 2012 12:01AM CDT/ 5:01AM GMT / 4:01PM EDT THROUGH MARCH 19, 2012 AT 2:00AM CDT/ 7:00AM GMT / 6:00 PM EDT. ONLY VALID FOR NEW STAR WARS™: THE OLD REPUBLIC™ (“PRODUCT”) ACCOUNTS NOT ENROLLED IN A PROMOTIONAL TRIAL FOR PRODUCT. UNUSED TRIAL TIME IS FORFEITED UPON REDEMPTION OF PRODUCT REGISTRATION CODE, PURCHASE OF PRODUCT SUBSCRIPTION, OR REDEMPTION OF A GAME TIME CARD CODE. VALID ONLY IN TERRITORIES WHERE STAR WARS™: THE OLD REPUBLIC™ IS DISTRIBUTED. OFFER MAY NOT BE SUBSTITUTED, EXCHANGED, SOLD OR REDEEMED FOR CASH OR OTHER GOODS OR SERVICES. CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER OFFER, GIFT CARD, REBATE OR OTHER DISCOUNT. LIMIT ONE OFFER PER ACCOUNT HOLDER.
 
ACCEPTANCE OF END USER ACCESS AND LICENSE AGREEMENT (“EUALA”), PERSISTENT INTERNET CONNECTION, AND ACCOUNT REGISTRATION REQUIRED TO PLAY. MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER. AGREEMENT TO SHARE ACCOUNT INFORMATION WITH LUCASFILM ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LTD. IS REQUIRED TO ACCESS GAMEPLAY. SEE EUALA FOR DETAILS. PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE AVAILABLE AT WWW.SWTOR.COM. ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO PLAY THE GAME APPLY AT ALL TIMES.

The CS:GO beta get’s it’s first “Arsenal: Demolition” map. Arsenal Demolition is said to be a fast paced mix of bomb planting and gun progression, most players will know this kind of gameplay from GunGame.
 
With Arsenal Demolition there are no buy menus instead you start with a rifle and with every kill you make that round you get a weaker weapon in the next.
 
After 5 rounds the sides switch and the same thing repeats itself again for a total of 10 rounds. The tradtitional GunGame mode will also make it’s return in CS:GO but will be named “Arsenal: Arms Race”
 
With the release of the updated beta 10,000 more players will receive a “Beta Invitation” today (maybe you will get lucky). Below is a list of the full release notes for this update.

New

• Enabled Arsenal Mode: Demolition ( Gungame-objective ).
• Set quickmatch to Arsenal Demolition, de_lake.

Graphics

• Replaced Source shadow engine.
• Added support for Intel integrated graphics chipsets.
• Added FXAA.

Sound

• Radically reduced dsp on 3rd person footsteps to address directionality problems.
• Remixed ladder footsteps to prevent players thinking someone was right next to them when they weren’t.
• Decreased weapon shot volumes relative to footsteps. This should cause one to increase their volume locally to the level they are used to playing, thereby loudening footsteps in the mix.
• Reduced number of dynamic audio channels, thereby increasing the number of static ones. This is to counter the overrunning of static audio channels and dropping sounds.
• Updated win round music.
• Remixed deathcam music.
• Added round start and team auto select countdown beeps.
• Adjusted soundscapes on most maps.

Game

• Edited existing knife hit wall/world to be more universal for all surfaces. Added three more variations.
• Lowered AK47 position to match m4.
• Fixed crouch/jump-crouch seeing through the ceiling.
• Casual mode limit changed from 30 minutes to 10 rounds.
• Fixed exagerated neck hitbox that made headshots much easier.
• Refined most hitboxes to better match player geometry.
• Fixed one-way smoke grenades.

UI

• Implemented achievement medals.
• Dynamically resizing the pause menu panels to match the number of options present. Fixing the back button on the subpanel to swap to a button hint string for console/controller.
• Fixed renaming of files when pressing F5 for death cam.
• Fixed overlap between Health/Armor panel and spectator panel.
• Adding playing joing messages and playing as bot message to mini scoreboard
• Adding hud alerts panel for telling you match state
• Changed art and animation for alert, achievement, info and defuse panels.
• Added icon for defusing without a defuse kit to defuse panel.
• Updated some weapon images.
• Added element to the team miniscoreboard that displays when you’re currently controlling a bot as well as what team you are playing on every time you spawn.
• Added alerts for last round of first half, last round of match, and match-point.
• Fixed some defuse panel data.
• Added CT defusing state to player ID.

General

• Fixed bug where spectating player’s view would pop back up when observed player was in full duck.
• Fixed miscellaneous map bugs.
• Remove capping mouse accel values (caused negative in-game effects)
• Reducing the latency between bomb defuse thinks, which causes the defuse HUD to feel laggy and allows a non-fixed duration of time where you can let go of the defuse button and still be counted as defusing as long as you press defuse again before the next c4 think.

Check out our latest trailer for Spec Ops: The Line, made exclusively for the community!

Battlefield 3: Close Quarters is a themed expansion pack bringing the team play of Battlefield 3 to tight indoor environments. The frantic close quarters infantry combat is amplified by unprecedented high definition destruction, new ways to play, added persistence, and new weapons.
 
The HD Destruction in Battlefield 3: Close Quarters lets players riddle the environment with bullets, reducing entire locales to ruin. Everything from furniture to plaster can be shot to pieces, and players can see the result of the mayhem as rubble and broken pieces pile up on the floor. The tight level design and many opportunities for vertical gameplay create a highly competitive environment.

Turbine has released a new trailer from Update 6: Shores of the Great River – The Journey Towards Rohan Begins from Lord of the Rings Online. The trailer shows off some of the new locations players can scout out in the latest update. Enjoy!

Acording to “The Verge” Matte screen options will be available on both models. The Asus Zenbook UX31A 13.3-inch and  UZ21A 11.6-inch models offer 1920×1080 on an IPS display. The Ivy Bridge processor comes fomr Intel’s low-voltage (17W TDP) range and will have the following models to choose from:

• Core i7-3517U, dual-core, four threads, 4MB L3, cache, 3GHz max Turbo Boost speed
• Core i5-3317U, dual-core, four threads, 3MB L3 cache, 2.6GHz max Turbo Boost speed
• Core i3-3217U, dual-core, four threads, 3MB L3 cache, 1.8GHz (no Turbo Boost)

Customers will get to choose between 2GB or 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3L RAM that will operate at 1.35V instead of 1.5V, the DDR3L RAM can’t be upgraded after purchase. The graphics will be powered by Intel’s “HD Graphics 4000″ and the HDD will max out at a SATA III SSD 256GB.
 
The wireless connectivity comes in the form of Intel’s “Wireless Display media streaming technology”, 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0. An SDXC card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, and a Micro HDMI output are also present. The backlit keyboard has a “seamless chiclet” that offers greater solidity and deeper key travel. The battery will keep your Zenbook running between six and seven hours on the UX31A models and around five hours on the smaller UX21A.

Raffi Krikorian has made it public via a tweet that twitter supports the by google made “spdy-protocol”. With the “spdy-protocol” developed by Google web pages can be loaded faster and more secure. The protocol allows data connections to be multiplexed, compressed and encrypted automatically. Below are some of the spdy-protocol enhancements:

• Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) — a transport-layer protocol to replace TCP, which provides multiplexed streams and stream-aware congestion control.
• HTTP over SCTP — a proposal for running HTTP over SCTP. Comparison of HTTP Over SCTP and TCP in High Delay Networks describes a research study comparing the performance over both transport protocols.
• Structured Stream Transport (SST) — a protocol which invents “structured streams”: lightweight, independent streams to be carried over a common transport. It replaces TCP or runs on top of UDP.
• MUX and SMUX — intermediate-layer protocols (in between the transport and application layers) that provide multiplexing of streams. They were proposed years ago at the same time as HTTP/1.1.

With HTML5 and websites getting heavier and more content rich an “enhaced” protocol isn’t a bad idea, the only question that remains is “what does google get out of this?”
For full details on the spdy-protocol have a look at the whitepaper.

Help support us by sharing this with your friends!
 
We’d like to point out that we are NOT affiliated with any other fan film. We are our own independent group of artists.
 
About:
Completed on a personal budget of less than $200 and filmed on the Canon T3i and Sigma lens, Halo: The Fallen (Prologue) is a Non Profit fan film based on the ‘HALO’ video game franchise. It is a short film that showcases our technical talents which include cinematography, visual fx, costuming and prop design.
 
Synopsis:
An aging veteran of the Human-Covenant war recollects his first encounter with the Covenant.

According to Xbox360Achievements.org Microsoft is planning to expand the limit of achievements in XBLA titles from 200 points to 400.
 
The rules will be changed as followed:
OLD RULES

• Base: 200 Gamerscore / Max of 20 Achievements
• DLC: Up to 50 Gamerscore + 5 Achievements per Quarter (3 Max)
• Total: Up to 350 Gamerscore / 35 Achievements

NEW RULES

• Base: 400 Gamerscore / Max of 30 Achievements
• DLC: Up to 100 Gamerscore + 8 Achievements per Quarter (4 Max)
• Total: Up to 800 Gamerscore / 62 Achievements

The new rules mean XBLA titles from June 1 will have to stick to the new rules. Games from before that date have the choice to use the OLD or NEW rules.

The website Dailymotion posted a video preview of the designs from the Mass Effect: Paragon Lost anime movie on Saturday. Funimation, one of the production partners that is adapting BioWare’s science-fiction role-playing game franchise, is presenting this early look at the project at the SXSW 2012 festival this week.

New features

Support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 and 7700 Series

• Enables support for Windows 7 64-bit/32-bit and Windows Vista 64-bit/32-bit.
• Windows XP support will be made available in AMD Catalyst 12.4.

Improvements

Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing for DirectX 10 and 11 applications

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900 and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series.
• Users can now enable Super Sample Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst Control Center for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications.
• Applications must support in game Anti-Aliasing for the feature to work (Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center is not supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications).

AMD Eyefinity 2.1 technology enhancements

• Custom resolutions – users can now choose from a much larger set of display resolutions for their AMD Eyefinity configurations.
• Dynamic Configuration Changes: Switching between different display configurations (when physically plugging/un-plugging displays) will occur automatically by loading the appropriate profile.
• HydraVision enhancements: The Windows Task bar can now be moved and resized based on users preference.
• Profile Manager improvements: Users can now create multiple Display profiles, enabling users to seamlessly switch between various AMD Eyefinity and Display Configurations.

Resolved issues

for the Windows 7 Operating System

• Random texture flickering is no longer experienced when playing Tom Clancy HAWX with Crossfire™ and Eyefinity enabled.
• Random texture flickering is no longer experienced when playing Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 3 in a Tri-Crossfire setup.
• Random texture flickering is no longer experienced when playing Dragon Age 2 with Crossfire and Vsync enabled.
• Skipping the in-game cinematics when running Dragon Age 2 in DirectX 11 mode no longer causes random stuttering.
• The Battleforge DirectX 10.0 benchmark no longer experiences intermittent crashes when run in Tri-Crossfire mode.
• Random flickering is no longer observed when playing Battlefield – Bad Company 2 in DirectX 11 mode.
• Playing back h.264 interlaced BluRay content no longer displays intermittent green flashing.
• The system no longer experiences random hangs when playing back BluRay 3D content in Duplicate mode.
• Starcraft II no longer experiences random system crashes when exiting a campaign in certain Crossfire configurations.
• Batman – Arkam City no longer experiences intermittent system crashes when run in DirectX 11 mode.
• Changing Crossfire settings no longer causes a random system crash.
• A system crash is no longer experienced when playing Rage with Crossfire enabled.
• Crysis Warhead and Battlefield – Bad Company II no longer experience random crashes in certain Crossfire configurations.
• Playback of BluRay 3D content now correctly uses hardware acceleration.
• Random texture corruption is no longer displayed when playing Dirt III in DirectX 11 mode and with anisotropic filtering applied.

for the Windows 7 Operating System

• Windows Aero options are available after installing the driver.
• Background textures in World of Warcraft Cataclysm no longer experience random flickering in some Crossfire and Eyefinity configurations.

Known issues

under the Windows 7 operating system

• Alan Wake – Enabling CrossfireX can cause corruptions or hangs. This issue will be fixed in AMD Catalyst 12.3
• Elder Scrolls – Image corruption can be be seen with Anti-Aliasing enabled on speciic AMD graphics hardware. This issue will be fixed in AMD Catalyst 12.3
• Vsync may be disabled after task switching when playing Rage.
• A black screen may be displayed when running Civilization V in certain Eyefinity configurations.
• Playing Far Cry 2 at high in game settings may generate a system hang.
• Poor performance may be experience when playing Dirt 3 in DirectX 11 mode at low resolutions with Crossfire enabled.

under the Windows XP operating system

• The system may hand when playing Dirt 3 at maximum in-game settings.

Downloads:

AMD Catalyst 12.2 – Windows XP (32bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.2 – Windows XP (64bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.2 – Windows Vista en 7 (32bit)
AMD Catalyst 12.2 – Windows Vista en 7 (64bit)
AMD Catalyst Mobility 12.2 – Windows Vista/7 (32bit)
AMD Catalyst Mobility 12.2 -r Windows Vista/7 (64bit)
AMD CrossFireX Application Profiles

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Part #2

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Part #3

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